Saving lives, serving glamour
THE coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is ravaging the fashion industry in terms of lives and revenue. The loss of beloved international designer Ito Curata, 60, who famously dressed up sex goddess Sharon Stone when he was based in Hollywood, leaves a void. Sergio Rossi, 84, the Italian shoe designer, also succumbed to the disease. Here’s praying that Miss Earth 2011 Olga Alava of Ecuador, who tested positive for the virus, will be well.
HIGH FASHION FOR HEALTH WORKERS
FOR his Spring 2008 Ready-to-wear collection for Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs collaborated with the artist Richard Prince to create the handbag line. To better brandish the bags, they dressed supermodels that carried them in stark white, inspired by the pristine uniforms of nurses. Wearing a cap each with a letter spelling the brand and a sheer black face mask were Stephanie Seymour, Eva Herzigova, Rianne Ten Haken, Anne Vyalitsyna, Carmen Kass, Natalia Vodianova, Angela Lindvall, Isabeli Fontana, Karolina Kurkova, Lara Stone, Nadja Auermann and Naomi Campbell.
It might’ve been the most fashionable time health workers were showcased on the runway. But the fashion industry, especially in the couture houses, has always looked to the medical profession in the way the tailors and seamstresses dress inside their workrooms. They also wear white lab coats. This was epitomized by the aristocratic French couturier Hubert de Givenchy, who always wore a white lab coat as his atelier uniform.
With the Covid-19 crisis, medicine and fashion are once again converging. Saving lives, serving glamour. Health workers are appealing for face masks and hospital gowns, and the fashion folk are responding.
In Japan, which was one of the first countries to be hit by the virus outside of China, retail brand Uniqlo’s parent company, Fast Retailing, will be donating 10 million masks (from China) to hospitals across their country, as well as sending a million masks each to the US and Italy. It will also donate its Heatteach and Airism clothing to medical staff across Asia.
In the United Kingdom, Burberry will use its Yorkshire factory, which usually produces its trademark trench coats, to make a hundred thousand face masks for the beleaguered National Health Services. The British fashion house will also fund the University of Oxford’s vaccine research.
In France, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton head Bernard Arnault instructed its perfumes and cosmetics brands (Parfums Christian Dior, Guerlain, and Parfums Givenchy) to pivot its productions to hydroalcoholic gel to be donated to French health authorities. Luxury group Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander Mcqueen, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron) is buying 3 million masks from China to also be donated to French health services. Chanel is awaiting approval for its prototypes for masks. Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky said in a statement: “We are mobilizing our partner manufacturers and teams, including close to 150 sewing specialists from the Haute Couture, Ready-to-wear and Maisons d’art workshops, to produce protective face masks and gowns.”
In Italy, Prada is producing 80,000 medical overalls and 110,000 face masks. It has also reportedly gifted Italian health authorities with two complete intensive care and resuscitation units. Giorgio Armani has switched its production facilities to manufacture single-use medical overalls. “I would like to dedicate a special thought to those involved in the production of disposable medical overalls, with their skills and dedication they will make a concrete contribution to confronting the greatest emergency of these years,” said the Italian master.
In Spain, Inditex, the owner of the biggest retail brand in the world, Zara, is turning over its supply chains to produce medical supplies. It expects to donate 300,000 face masks for medical workers and patients, and will start to make medical gowns once they procure medical-grade materials and fabrics.
In the US, indie designers Christian Siriano and Kerby Jean-raymond of Pyer Moss were the first to offer their services to make face masks in New York, the epicenter of the current epicenter of the crisis. Ralph Lauren is donating $10 million to relief efforts, which includes the manufacture of 250,000 masks and 25,000 isolation gowns. Of his philanthropy, Lauren told Town & Country in 2018: “I’m not a doctor; I just wanted to do what I could to help. For me, everything is personal. I realize that over the course of 50 years, you could blow it or you could stand for something.”
PPES WITH PINOY PANACHE
EVEN with threadbare resources, Filipino fashion designers are in the frontline of helping prevent the spread of Covid-19. They are heeding the desperate calls of health workers for protective coverings.
■ MICH DULCE AND THE MANILA PROTECTIVE GEAR SEWING CLUB. One of the biggest initiatives is the Manila Protective Gear Sewing Club, a group of “volunteers producing PPE [personal protective equipment] using a medically reviewed open source suit design to be distributed accordingly by the Office of the Vice President Leni Robredo.
The group will be distributing the PPES to more than a hundred medical institutions from Mountain Province to Mandaluyong to Mindoro to Misamis Occidental. Volunteer designers include big names such as Job Dacon, Mark Bumgarner, Patrice Diaz, RJ Santos, Joey Sacco and Charina Sarte.
They are asking for fabric donations including water-repellant fabrics such as umbrella/raincoat material, poly microfiber and taffeta; nonwoven materials 50 gsm up, plus zippers, garters, velcro, twill tape and manila paper for pattern replication.
Mich Dulce, the London-educated designer and milliner, is the go-to person for this remarkable undertaking. In a statement, she offered some clarifications and guidance:
“I’ve been saying from the start and it says in our techpack that these are nonmedical grade suits.
No designer can ever make a medical grade suit in their factory. This assumption is so dangerous and irresponsible.... Our patterns are medically reviewed to be the best version of a DIY suit, [but] it will never
be medical grade. To be medical grade, they need to be made in a sterile environment and have to pass so many tests.... We are making suits as a layer of protection for health-care workers, as some of them are now reduced to using raincoats and garbage bags. These suits are a more durable alternative to that, but not medical grade, and as I’ve been saying from the beginning, they should be distributed accordingly. Let’s be responsible with our language and what we circulate please. Otherwise, we do more harm than good.”
■ FASHION DESIGNERS ASSOCIATION OF ZAMBOANGA (FDAZ). The members of the FDAZ (Angking Francisco, Federico Navarro, Neri Jaruda, Dr. Benjason Caranay, Atty. Breithner Amelda, Rachel Castillo, Ann Loong, Monching Fernandez, Leo Alfaro, Kuku Jimeno and Iven Sescon) have generously volunteered their time and talent to making PPES for the health workers in the Zambasulta area (Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-tawi) and Zambo Sibugay.
“We have produced 250 pieces so far and will be producing 2,500 more for the Zamboanga City Medical Center, Zamboanga City Health Office, and other government hospitals,” said Francisco.
“Our problem for now is the sourcing out of materials. But, hopefully, some Zamboangueños in Manila will be able to send some through the military C-130 plane.”
■ ADRIAN PE AND THE TELETUBBIES NURSES. Pe is the person behind the cheerful, campy PPES putting a smile on the health workers who wear them, somewhat easing the dangers they are facing while doing their job. A designer and a registered cardiovascular operating room nurse, Pe has produced PPES with themes, such as the Teletubbies, Ninja Turtles and Star Wars, and soon Power Rangers and Ghostbusters.
“Within this hospital are the bravest and kindest people you will ever meet,” Pe said of The Medical City Iloilo, where he works. His coworkers, whom he endearingly calls Teletubbies Nurses, also help him make the PPES, using nonwoven fabric like the ones being used for eco-bags because it’s longer-lasting and fluid-resistant. They also donate to the Rep. Pedro Trono Hospital, Don Jose Monfort Medical Center Extension Hospital, Western Visayas Sanitarium, Iloilo Provincial Hospital, Federico Roman Tirador Sr. Memorial District Hospital, and Ramon Tabiana Memorial District Hospital.
As to why he does this noble endeavor, Pe wittily misquotes Catriona Gray’s winning Miss Universe reply: “I work a lot in the hospital and the work there is exhausting. And I have always taught myself to look for the beauty in it, to look in the beauty in the faces of the patients, and to be grateful. And I will bring this aspect as a nurse, to see situations with a #silverlining. And to assess where I could give something, where I could provide something as a spokesperson. And if I can teach people to be grateful, we can have an amazing world where #Covid-19 cannot grow and prosper, and children will have smiles on their faces.” ■